Princess Anne is known for her quick wit and sharp sense of humour – and she had the best response when asked about a conversation she had to have with her mother the Queen
Princess Anne had the best reaction when asked what it was like to have to ask her mother, the Queen, for permission to get married.
Members of the royal family are required to seek the monarch’s approval before tying the knot. It’s a rule that was set out in an act imposed in 1772 in Parliament stating that no descendant of George II can marry without the consent of the reigning monarch. And that applied to Anne ahead of her wedding to Mark Phillips in 1973.
In a previous interview, the Princess was asked how it felt to have to ask her mother for permission to wed. Without missing a beat, the quick-witted royal replied: “Not half as difficult as asking permission to get divorced.”
Anne and Mark announced their engagement on 29 May 1973, and they were married on 14 November 1973 at Westminster Abbey in a televised ceremony. They subsequently took up residence at Gatcombe Park, which was a wedding gift from the Queen, and went on to welcome two children together, Peter and Zara.
Sadly, the marriage was not to last. On 31 August 1989, Anne and Phillips announced their intention to separate; the couple had been rarely seen in public together and both were romantically linked with other people. They initially said they had “no plans for divorce” but some two years later, on 13 April 1992, the Palace announced that Anne had filed for divorce, which was finalised ten days later.
The Princess went on to find love again. In December 1992, she married Sir Timothy Laurence, a commander in the Royal Navy, at Crathie Kirk near Balmoral Castle. Scotland was chosen for the wedding because the country’s church allowed divorcees to remarry, while the Church of England forbade it at the time.
Anne and Timothy’s wedding was attended by around 30 guests, including her parents, the late Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, Anne’s two children, Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall, the Queen Mother, Princess Margaret and Anne’s younger brother, Prince Edward.
Like Anne’s first husband, Sir Timothy was offered a royal title upon his marriage to the Princess Royal, but he decided to turn this down. He was, however, made a Knight Commander in 2011.
Timothy has forged a very close bond with the rest of the royal family. Notably, he was the only person of non-royal lineage on the Buckingham Palace balcony during the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations and Trooping the Colour. And he has been a constant by his wife’s side at other major events, from garden parties, to Zara and Peter’s wedding, and King Charles’ Coronation. He was also a rock for Anne following the deaths of her parents, Prince Philip and the late Queen.
